Emo veterans Mineral were only around from 1994 to 1997, having broken up before the release of their second and final album, EndSerenading, but they're finally back and last night (9/4) they kicked off their first tour in 17 years at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus. (Following a surprise show in their hometown of Austin.) Each year it becomes increasingly clear that bandsdon'tstaybrokenup, but Mineral is a band I really thought I would never see. I didn't discover them until they'd already broken up (and judging by the average age of the crowd last night, neither did many of the people in attendance), and they'd always just been a band whose brief career I considered to be a thing of the past. Something that would only live on through those two great records.

But Mineral are back, and from last night's show you'd think they never left. Some reunited bands just play to the fans, smiling on stage and inspiring long overdue singalongs (nothing wrong with that). Others look bored and make you wonder why they even reunited in the first place. But Mineral looked like they'd secretly been a band all these years. They didn't say anything sentimental on stage, didn't crack any jokes about how long it's been. If you didn't know any better you might have thought you were seeing a new band. They were tight, in the zone, and looked totally into the songs for their whole set. And actually it makes sense, because Mineral ended before they could ever tour in support of what many (myself included) consider their best album. There was definitely a sense that there was some unfinished business to be taken care of with the passion that was put into EndSerenading standouts like "Palisade" or "Unfinished" or "For Ivadell."

The influence Mineral's had over the years also rang loud and clear at last night's show. Just about any band from the last 15 years to mix emo and post-rock owes a hell of a lot to Mineral and seeing them live couldn't have made that any clearer. The beautiful, intertwining clean guitar parts leading into those huge crescendos basically sounded like the blueprint for anything from The Appleseed Cast's post-'90s output to Caspian to many of the current young bands on labels like Topshelf and Count Your Lucky Stars. And it's hard to imagine Mineral's pals Jimmy Eat World writing songs like "Table For Glasses" without the influence of EndSerenading. That record's influence is undeniable, but few bands can do it like Mineral proved they still can.

Though Mineral didn't say any of the sentimental stuff on stage, the crowd definitely did, with multiple people shouting "thank you Mineral!" throughout their set. Special guest opener Frank Turner also spoke plenty about his love for the band during his set, and he could be seen right up front in the crowd for theirs.

Evan Weiss' band Into It. Over It. opened last night as well, and will continue to do so for the rest of the tour (and for one of American Football's reunion shows). The tour continues with three more NYC shows, at Bowery Ballroom tonight (9/5), Saturday and Sunday, all three of which are sold out. UPDATE: Tickets are back on sale for all three dates. You may want to act quick!

Mineral was one of my favorite bands in high school, and I am super excited for the show tonight, but they sound terrible in that video. I really hope they're using this 24 hour period to get their shit together before the show tonight.

I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school (yeah)
He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar, I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks, but all he kept talking about was

Glory days
Well they'll pass you by, glory days
In the wink of a young girl's eye, glory days
Glory days